Create VSS based EBS snapshots for your EC2 Windows instance

After you've met all of the Prerequisites to create Windows VSS based EBS snapshots, you can use any of the following methods to create VSS based snapshots from your EC2 instance.

AWS Systems Manager command documents

Use Systems Manager command documents to create VSS based snapshots.

To automate backups, you can create an AWS Systems Manager maintenance window task that uses the AWSEC2-VssInstallAndSnapshot command document. For more information, see Working with Maintenance Windows (Console) in the AWS Systems Manager User Guide.

AWS Backup

You can create a VSS backup when using AWS Backup by enabling VSS in the console or CLI. For more information, see Creating Windows VSS backups in the AWS Backup Developer Guide.

Note

AWS Backup doesn’t automatically install the AwsVssComponents package on your instance. You must perform a manual install on your instance. For more information, see Manually install the VSS components on an EC2 Windows instance.

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager

You can create VSS snapshots using Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager by enabling pre and post scripts in your snapshot lifecycle policies. For more information, see Automating application-consistent snapshots in the Amazon EBS User Guide.

Note

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager doesn’t automatically install the AwsVssComponents package on your instance. You must perform a manual install on your instance. For more information, see Manually install the VSS components on an EC2 Windows instance.